1957 Topps Basketball

The 1957-58 Topps release was the company's first basketball issue. The set's production design is possibly their worst ever - as supported by a recent find of over 1000 cards that yielded less than 50 well centered examples. Presumably the set's poor production translated into poor sales because it was the one and only basketball set released by Topps until 1969 when they re-entered the market. As the first basketball set since 1948 Bowman, the 1957 Topps set obviously features an inordinate amount of rookies - notably Bill Russell, Bob Cousey, Bill Sharman and Tommy Heinsohn of the Celtics and All-time greats such as Bob Pettit, Paul Arizin and Dolph Schayes.

Fleer's 1961 set was the company's only major basketball issue until the classic 1986-87 season. Cards numbers 1-44 feature players close-ups while cards 45-66 feature in-action photos. Since the set bridged a 4 year gap between the previous basketball issue, the set is notable for containing the rookie cards for many of the game's all-time greats. The set is especially sought by advanced collectors due to its extremely bad card production and centering. The key rookie cards in the set include Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, and Lenny Wilkins.

Topps issued this 23 card insert set one per pack with its 1969 Basketball issue. Each poster features an NBA star drawn in full color with a sidebar ruler showing the player's height. The set is chock full of Hall Of Famers and All-time greats including Lew Alcindor (rookie), Chamberlain, West, Frazier, Reed, Havlicek, Hayes, Monroe, Robertson, Bing, and so on.

1969 Topps Basketball

Topps returned to the hardwood after a 12 year absence with this classic oversized set of 99 cards. This set contains virtually every important rookie card for the entire decade including Lew Alcindor, the Knick HOF line-up of Frazier, Reed, Bradley and DeBusschere, plus HOFers Havlicek, Unseld, Bing, Cunningham, Hawkins, Goodrich, Monroe, and the Big "E" Elvin Hayes. What a line-up!

Topps expanded its basketball set to 175 cards in 1970 while maintaining the "tall boy" format of the previous year. With its larger size, Topps was able to add its familiar subsets - League Leaders (1-6), All-Stars (106-115) and highlights from the NY Knicks championship series with the Lakers (168-175). The set features many notable rookies including Pistol Pete Maravich, Calvin Murhpy and Pat Riley.

1970 Topps Bskt Posters

This set of 24 large posters was issued as an insert in 2nd series wax packs of the Topps 1970 Basketball set. The posters are in full color and show the players name and team. The posters are all action shots - meaning the defenders on a poster also feature many of the games stars. For example, Bill Russell is featured in the poster for common player Bob Rule. Over 50% of the set features HOFers, including an early Lew Alcindor, Chamberlain, West, Havlicek, and Frazier.

1971 Topps Basketball

Topps expanded the count but shrunk the size of its 1971 Basketball release. Most responsible for the increase was the inclusion of an 89 card series featuring the players from the ABA. The motif of the cards are very similar to the 1965 Topps Hockey issue. The set features many rookies including Dave Cowens, Spencer Haywood, Nate Archibald, Larry Brown, Dan Issel, Rick Barry and Bob Lanier.

Topps inserts these Basketball stickers in some of its 1971-72 wax packs. Each sticker featured three players from both the NBA and the ABA - hence the Hobby name for the set is Trios. Thirteen of the 26 cards appeared less frequently on a sheet and are very difficult single prints - given the black borders are prone to shipping, the entire issue is difficult to find in Near Mint grade. The set features many of the top stars of the day including Chamberlain, Robertson, West, Maravich, Barry and Lew Alcindor.

1972 Topps Basketball

Topps increased its basketball issue again, this time to 264 standard sized cards. As with the 1971 release, the 1972 Topps set featured players from both the NBA and ABA. The set features the rookie cards of Julius Erving and Phil Jackson - the latter a common as a player but an all-time great and future Hall Of Famer as a coach.